About French journalist Edith Bouvier

PRESS RELEASE

The media news that the French journalist Edith Bouvier who was recently staying in the Syrian town of Homs was transferred to the territory of Lebanon and feels herself good has been perceived in Moscow with satisfaction.

At the same time we would like to remind that the Russian side was making the most active efforts to assist her evacuation from the zone of conflict between governmental troops and illegal armed units. We were doing it in contact with French representatives including the Embassy of France in Damascus.

However, Russian efforts in this regard run into a number of obstacles beyond the sphere of our opportunities. As it is known, Edith Bouvier stayed in the area of Homs which was under control of rebels.

This case once again confirms a necessity as we have said for a number of times to exert vigorous outside pressure on all the sides of the conflict in Syria including opposition.

At the same time we call upon all the Syrian sides for honest constructive cooperation with the International Red Cross and relevant humanitarian structures of the UNO in order to overcome existing humanitarian problems, affecting first of all civilian population.

2 March 2012